Besides designing blogs and websites and blogging, I work full time at a book publishing company. Yesterday, I saw a catalog page layout for one of the book publishers of our book distributor who happens to share the same office space as we do. I noticed one of the books for the Fall 2008 schedule was “Heath Ledger: Hollywood’s Dark Star” pending publication by Plexus Publishing in August 2008. I looked up the book on Amazon and noticed that there are also 2 other books pending about Heath Ledger later this year. Some weeks back I read that Ledger’s death has increased interest and anticipation for Batman: The Dark Night do out later this year. Then I thought about the book I recently read titled The Man Who Invented Hudson which reveals how much of a punk James Dean really was and which made me think about how legends are created. I wonder then, with Ledger’s death, do we have a new young legend about to be born? If Ledger is to go down in history as a legend, will it be in his own right?

I did really admire Ledger for his truly remarkable ability to become the character in his films. It’s a magical and rare thing to see on screen. Unlike “stars” like Tom Cruise, Ledger was an actor and a star in his own right. It didn’t matter who he was off screen because on screen you were entrenched in the character’s life and captivated and sympathetic. If Ledger lived, I do believe he would have been, and in some respects he was already on par with the likes of Gary Oldman who I think is the most diverse, capable, truly amazing actors of American cinema, although he is British. (That’s telling). Ledger, like Oldman, was a chameleon and artist in the truest sense of the word without all the snobbery attached.

These times, right now, surrounding Ledger’s death reminds me a bit of the time surrounding River Phoenix’s death. Phoenix too had this magical certain something that unlike Ledger and Dean, never quite hit a cinematic height though he was full on his way. Ledger had Broke Back Mountain (and perhaps Dark Night) and Dean had Rebel Without a Cause (and perhaps Giant). Though My Own Private Idaho was a great film in which Phoenix’s performance was remarkable, his potential was not maximized in the film. If Heath Ledger is to become iconic in film history, he would rightfully deserve it. And before, during and after Dark Night’s release, I look forward to seeing if and how Ledger is “canonized” as a young Hollywood legend.